By now, you have all probably gone out to monitor your sites. I hope they are in good condition and that the roads haven’t deteriorated too much. Do let your ATL know if you have any concerns. And, as always, you’re welcome to send news directly to Nancy (nancycella@spinn.net) or me (iwanner@uw.edu) for inclusion in Site Lines any time. We love fresh news from the field. Photos should be attached. Some of you have expressed inter-est in visiting sites in other areas. If you want to arrange to accompany stewards out of your area, contact ATLs: Caja – Steve Lund, solovino @pobox.com; Garcia – Will Dearholt, wrd@lanl.gov; Jemez – John Morris, johnfmorris2@mail. com; Pecos – Cathy Gates, cathy75 @me.com; Rio Chama – K. Paul Jones, kenneth-pauljones@q.com. They can hook you up with new places to visit. The Gallina is lining up a new ATL and AATL. Most of your Chili Cookoff Commit-tee (formerly known as the Annual Meeting Committee) - Will Dearholt, Courtney Perkins, Nancy Cella, Nancy Hudson, and Mike Bremer along with Annie Baldwin – met at Fuller Lodge in Los Alamos recently to check out the facilities we’ve rented for our annual get-together. This year, it will be on Saturday, Sep-tember 19. We were gratified that so many stewards took time to vote on the venue. Thanks! You’ll be sur-prised to learn the result was a tie, which the committee members broke in favor of the location closer to most of us. Perhaps another time we can

hold the event at Ghost Ranch; we might solicit suggestions of places to meet for the future, so think about where you’d enjoy going. See the story below with some details for this year and stay tuned for more. For now, save the date on your calendar and start hunting for silent auction items as well as delicious chili reci-pes. There’s no fee this year and Los Alamos Historical Society very kindly offered to donate tours in the after-noon; they’ll run 60 to 90 minutes. The opportunity to enjoy a day to-gether in such a beautiful, historic setting should be memorable.

At the council meeting on April 25, three provisional stewards were certi-fied. Congratulations to: Heidi Strickfaden and Shelly Weimann (Rio Chama), and Steve Morse (Caja del Rio).

We’re almost halfway through a new year so it’s a great time to renew your Foundation membership if you haven’t already. One perk is trips. Gary Newgent says an autumn visit to ruins and rock art in Utah is being planned. Our dues also support grants. See below for more informa-tion.

At SiteWatch’s annual meeting last February, Daisy Levine, who organ-izes steward teams for the Galisteo Basin and Bandelier National Monu-ment, said she needs a few more stewards to monitor Yapashi, a back-country Bandelier pueblo. The round-trip hike including a nice, steep de-scent into Alamo Canyon and climb out (unless you take a longer loop route) is about 12 miles. If you’re

Message from the Chair

Contributors to This Issue

Jo Douglas Cathy Gates Judith Isaacs K. Paul Jones Steve Lund John Morris Gary Newgent Beth Parisi Ann White

The editors thank you!

VOLUME 13 ISSUE 2

SPRING 2015 SITE LINESSITE LINESSITE LINESSITE LINES

BUSINESS NAME

Foundation Update 2

SE Utah Tour 3

Annual Gathering 6

Deforestation? 6

Gems and Minerals 7

ASNM Annual Meet-ing

8

Mexico Trip 9

News from the Field 11

Pecos Conference 13

Interesting Reading 13

Save the Dates 13

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

SITE LINES PAGE 2

interested, or would like more information, you can reach her at tiadora1@gmail.com or 505.466. 8338. In the meantime, have fun and interesting times as you visit your sites. Remember to check out and back in, take water, a hat, and so on. You know the drill.

—Irene Wanner

textiles, and some weaponry. The walk-through was necessarily short; many of us vowed to revisit the museum and gift shop for a more leisurely visit. Too much to see at once, but very worthwhile. The site itself was modeled after Chacoan structures. The museum is located adjacent to the partially excavated site.

Although cameras of all sizes, makes, and models were much in evidence, we only got around to posing for a group photo on Saturday afternoon. Before climbing yet another cliff to our vehicles, we gath-ered under a big cottonwood tree near the San Juan River on Saturday after-noon.

Many of the participants were from SiteWatch; SFNF site stewards, besides Shelley and Gary, included Stella Davidsen, Richard Hayes, Charles Koenig, and Nancy and Bill Cella. We

The very well-planned, -organized and -executed tour began on a Thursday with a morning visit to the Edge of the Cedars State Park museum and archaeological site in Bland-ing. We were astonished at the array of sel-dom/never seen artifacts retrieved from sites in the area from years gone by. We were espe-cially amazed by the quality and quantity of per-ishable artifacts: basketry, sandals, beautiful

Message from the Chair (cont).

The Southeastern Utah Tour

Site Steward Foundation Update

The Site Steward Foundation held its sev-enth annual meeting and election of board of directors on Sunday, February 15, 2015 in conjunction with the SiteWatch annual meet-ing at the Hibben Center on the UNM campus in Albuquerque. During the meeting the foun-dation announced the availability of up to $1,000 in grants for site steward activities and related programs. To apply for a foundation grant, please contact Gary Newgent at gary-newgent@yahoo.com for an application. They should be for a minimum of $200 each. The foundation tour of San Juan County, Utah, was held March 19-21, 2015, and at-tended by 13 participants and guides Shelley Thompson and Gary Newgent. The trip con-sisted of easy to moderate day hikes visiting about three sites per day.

The foundation had a vendor table at the recent Archaeological Society of New Mexico (ASNM) annual meeting in Taos, New Mexico, May 1–3, 2015, sponsored by the Taos Archaeological Soci-ety. The next ASNM annual meeting will be in Santa Fe, New Mexico April 29–May 1, 2016, and sponsored by the Site Steward Foundation. The foundation will also have a vendor table at the up-coming Pecos Conference in Mancos, Colorado August 7– 9, 2015.

If you are not a member of the Site Steward Foundation, please consider joining today. The foundation now accepts debit and credit cards for membership dues and donations on our website www.sitestewardfoundation.org. If you would like to be notified of foundation tours and activities, please subscribe to the email list on the founda-tion website. —-Gary Newgent, President

SITE LINES PAGE 3

On the back wall of the rock shelter were hand-prints above contemporary(?) incised designs, seen in the photo below.

One of the more spectacular sites we climbed to is called The Procession, located in one of the few crossovers in the Comb uplift. The photo below shows the approach across a long slick rock slope from Butler Wash. To the right is a long, steep drop down.

ourselves out into four vehicles, driven by Shel-ley, Gary, Richard Hayes, and Alston Lundgren.

The first walk-in site visit was to the Target Ruin, seen in the upper center of the photo above. The site, one of many in the area ex-plored in the early 20th century by Richard Wetherill and companions, was accessible by traversing the narrow ledge barely seen in the upper right of the above photo, a route that ap-pealed to none of us.

This is a closer view of the principal structures of the Target Ruin. The site name derives from a circle incised within one of the room’s back walls and only seen by climbing up a slope on the opposite side of the canyon to a small rock shelter—the target can be seen in the next photo.

The Southeastern Utah Tour (cont).

SITE LINES PAGE 4

The photo above shows almost all of the pro-cession of human and animal figures. The panel appears to show lines of human and animal fig-ures making their way toward a circle, which per-haps portrays an ideological meeting or center-place. Some of the human figures, tiny in this photo, are carrying objects that may differentiate their societal roles and status.

Continuing to the top of the uplift, beyond the procession panel, is an overview of Comb Wash.

The Southeast Utah Tour (cont).

One of the more interesting approaches was into Monarch Ruin. Those who wished to get to the ruin itself chose to drop their packs for a traverse across a slickrock approach that fea-tured a narrow ledge, not even visible in the photo below. It was a long slide if one faltered.

Kay Lee makes it across safely (right) to join others al-ready inside the structure (left); the site is within a large overhang in the up-per reaches of the canyon.

SITE LINES PAGE 5

One of the more interesting and spectacular rock art panels is entitled Wolfman, presumably because of tall figure in the center of the photo below. Although the circular glyphs at the right were seen in other panels, some of the other glyphs are unique.

Another glyph near the Wolfman site is unfortunately embel-lished with bullet holes

The photo on the right shows a site tucked under an overhang at one end of Lower Mule Canyon, a typical loca-tion in this stunning canyon country.

The Southeast Utah Tour (cont).

To the right is a photo of the same site in Lower Mule Canyon.

And then there were the social events: dinner and speaker at a restaurant in Bluff on Friday evening, and an ample happy hour in the park-ing lot of the Gateway Motel in Blanding late Saturday afternoon, courtesy of Shelley and

Gary—excellent hosts who kept us well informed throughout the three days, allowed us opportuni-ties to visit gift shops and visitor centers, and generally provided an excellent tour. THANK YOU!!!

These photos and comments are a very small sample of the land we traversed on foot and vehi-cle. If you want to see more, sign up for the next tour as soon as you see the invitation!

A few general comments:

• March, April, October and November are the

best months to visit this area;

• the elevation is about 4500 feet, making hik-

ing easier than most of us are used to;

• new or nearly new boot treads make for sure

footing;

• read the suggested literature before the trip;

• join the Site Steward Foundation to receive

all the foundation news

— Nancy Cella (text) and Bill Cella (photos)

SITE LINES PAGE 6

The site steward annual get-together will be held on Saturday, September 19, at Fuller Lodge in Los Alamos. Recently the annual meeting committee met at the lodge to speak with the manager and see how the facility meets our needs: it does, abundantly.

As many of you are aware, Fuller Lodge has served many roles during its 20th-century exis-tence. Designed by noted Santa Fe architect, John Gaw Meem, the lodge was constructed in 1928 and originally served as a dining hall, kitchen, and rooms for guests, staff, and the nurse for the Los Alamos Ranch School. It is a memorial to Edward P. Fuller, a Ranch School staff member; his wealthy father paid for its con-struction. During the Manhattan Project years, the lodge was a place for transient housing and feeding of Army post and technical personnel. One upstairs room is now a museum exhibit, showing furniture typical of the Ranch School era.

Platas to the north, and other higher areas border-ing the San Juan Basin. One estimate of the num-ber of trees used for construction between AD 1020-1080 is 45,000 trees, which represent an in-credible amount of labor. Ponderosa pine was the predominant species; Arizona State University studies in 1990 concluded that most of the ponder-osa pine came from the Chuskas. But Dr. Wills raised the prospect that the Chacoans were not as dependent on this region as so far thought. He ex-plored other forests as well.

Although one would suspect that the areas clos-est to the large sites within the canyon quickly be-came deforested in prehistoric times, Dr. Wills’ team found evidence of scattered large and small trees nearby and even within the canyon. These finds raise another interesting question: Have we perhaps underestimated local resources available at that time?

Another topic was agriculture within Chaco Can-yon, a prospect that defies logic when one looks at the area today—scrubby, dry, sand—who could grow crops there? About 20 years ago, archaeolo-gists claimed that the inhabitants of Chaco Canyon

The March 4 lecture given by Dr. Chip Wills was a nice complement to David Stuart’s talk in November on another aspect of the same topic – the collapse of the Chaco Canyon system. Dr. Wills and his team at UNM have been en-gaged in the Chaco Stratigraphy Project since 2006; it is an interdisciplinary research project intended to promote a greater understanding of the human experience at Chaco through de-tailed studies of socioeconomic change with an emphasis on agricultural production and tech-nology during the Bonito Phase (AD 850-1140).

One emphasis of Dr. Wills’ talk was the many thousands of large trees used in construction of Chaco’s numerous great houses. Where did so many trees come from? His research project draws from a variety of publications resulting from field studies conducted from the 1890s through the 20th century (for more information, explore the wealth of previous research on the Chaco Research Archive at www.chacoarchive.org).

The nearest sources of large trees include the Chuska Mountains to the west, the La

Annual Meeting (aka Chili Cookoff) Update

“Deforestation and Collapse at Chaco Canyon”

We will have access to the large main room, an adjoining room for our silent auction, a well-equipped kitchen, and the patio that borders the eastern wall of the building. We will have plenty of room for all our activities in a truly stunning facility. The agenda will follow its usual pattern:

• business meeting and talks in the morning;

• a potluck chili cook-off for lunch; • a walking tour of the historic areas near the

lodge In the afternoon; We may have another speaker in the afternoon,

• and will leave plenty of time to conduct our silent auction business. The Los Alamos Historical Society is hosting the docent-led tour. Stay tuned. More details will be forthcoming in future issues of Site Lines and email messages. Should you wish to help with any aspect of this get-together, please contact Will Dearholt at wrd@lanl.gov.

SITE LINES PAGE 7

weren’t farmers, but to assume that all the food was brought in from outlying areas doesn’t make much sense. Those who came to Polly Schaafsma’s talk last year might remember she took issue with the idea that Chaco could not be farmed; she showed an early photograph of Indians at Chaco hip deep in corn they had grown there. So the assumption that farming was never sustainable, too, comes into ques-tion.

With National Park Service permission, Wills and a team reopened the north-south trenches formerly excavated in the trash mounds fronting Pueblo Bonito, disclosing sections of channels that appeared to be used to direct water for do-mestic use, and perhaps irrigation. A juniper weir was found in one of the channels. The 160m trenches, opened in 2000, were back-filled by 2007.

Another puzzle is pottery production. About 50 percent of the pottery found in various excavations was imported. Was the rest made locally? Fuel is necessary to fire pottery, as well as for domestic cooking and heating. Again, where’s the neces-sary resource?

Dr. Wills and his team explored areas of ridges to the east, where ponderosa pine can grow. He concluded that we really don’t know that defores-tation itself was a causative factor in the collapse of the Chaco Canyon system. As Dr. Stuart pointed out in his November talk, increased popu-lation as well as decreasing food resources over time seemed to overwhelm the ability of the soci-ety to continue its existence. The mystery remains to tantalize researchers.

—Nancy Cella

are lost. But they are not. They are found in nu-merous repositories and need to be put back in order and their historical perspective."

Dr. Mathien discussed some of her studies in-volving the sourcing of gems and minerals in order to understand the trade and mobility patterns of the Pueblo people. We assume stones were ac-quired via exchange, theft, population migration, intermarriage, and warfare. But where the tur-quoise itself originally came from is an ongoing question because samples are small and testing them expensive.

Trade was apparently ongoing for a long time, widespread, and moved in many directions. We do know there are shells from the Gulf of Califor-nia and the Pacific Ocean; copper bells from west-ern Mexico; macaw and parrot feathers from tropical southern areas; cacao from southern Mex-ico and Guatemala; jet and lignite from the south-west United States and Mancos shale of the Colo-rado Plateau; and turquoise from the Colorado Plateau, Cerrillos Hills, and Nevada.

The gems and minerals at Chaco Canyon have played a continuing role in Dr. Mathien’s career, particularly turquoise. Texture of turquoise can vary from extremely hard to crumbly, she said.

On April 1, Gail Bryant brought us another fascinating speaker for the final lecture of our current series: Dr. Frances Joan Mathien.

Her résumé as published on our website reads as follows: “Joan Mathien is a retired Park Service archaeologist and currently ad-junct professor in the Department of Anthropol-ogy at the University of New Mexico. She has had a busy professional life. She has exten-sively explored various turquoise mines in New Mexico and been in numerous survey projects in Aztec, White Sands, Chaco, and in the Albu-querque petroglyph area. Additionally, she is the author of books and numerous journal arti-cles.”

Dr. Mathien is also a research associate with the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology and the Center for Archaeological Studies of the Mu-seum of New Mexico. Her current research projects include the sourcing of turquoise arti-facts with colleagues from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg; she’s also involved with the history of the Chaco Field School from 1929-1942 and again in 1947. She says, "This latter is a fascinating story because most peo-ple think that most of the records and artifacts

March 4 Site Steward Lecture (cont).

“The Role of Gems and Minerals in the Pueblo World”

SITE LINES PAGE 8

Sometimes it was crushed to make pigment. Other uses of turquoise were for jewelry, deco-ration on vessels and masks, cave and kiva of-ferings, and funerary objects. Most of the jew-elry found at Chaco was in Pueblo Bonito. It has been estimated that a typical stranded necklace of 1,800 beads would have taken more than 450 hours to make. Room 33 in Pueblo Bonito contained a two-person burial under a wood floor with an exceptionally large number of tur-quoise artifacts associated with it.

Over the years, several different methods have been used to determine the source loca-tion of turquoise with limited success. One cur-rent technique being attempted involves the analysis of the ratio of hydrogen and copper in the specimen. An interesting find may be devel-oping from the sourcing of the turquoise found in the different complexes within Chaco Canyon and the various Chacoan outliers. It appears that some of the building complexes within the canyon contain turquoise mainly sourced from areas west of Chaco Canyon, while other com-

plexes contain turquoise mainly sourced from ar-eas east of Chaco Canyon; some contain a mix-ture from both the eastern and western regions. This mix may represent different people having inhabited the different complexes within the can-yon. It also appears that the different outliers such as Salmon Ruin and Aztec may exhibit simi-lar patterns and those different sites may be con-nected to each other. For example, using tur-quoise sourcing, it appears that Salmon Ruin may have a connection to the inhabitants in Marcia’s Rincon in Chaco Canyon and that Pueblo Bonito may be connected to Aztec.

Stay tuned for more results from ongoing re-search and how gems and minerals can tell us so much about culture and social systems.

We all wish to send a very special THANK YOU to Gail Bryant for putting together another fasci-nating series of lectures we enjoyed during our off season. The lecture series is a great way for us to continue our education, make new friends, and stay in touch with our fellow stewards.

— Beth Parisi

locations, turquoise being the “god stone” of that culture. Janet MacKenzie discussed a project that was coauthored by two Mesa Prieta volunteers (our own Candie Borduin being one) about the mapping of trails on Mesa Prieta, some of which are prehistoric and still in use today. Catrina Whitley talked about the Shrine at BaahKu ar-chaeological site near Arroyo Seco. Phillip Alldritt presented an abstract on the Taos Junction Bridge Project and involving the community in pro-tecting archaeological sites.

On Saturday evening, there was a banquet and presentation of awards. John Hayden, a biologist and past president of ASNM, was honored by the ASNM for his many contributions as a para-archaeologist and employee of the Forest Service. He produced more than 80 reports related to site and rock art surveys over the course of his career. His work with Ghost Ranch paved the way for the volunteer program under Florence Hawley Ellis (one of the first anthropologists to work exten-sively with tree-ring dating). The evening ended

The ASNM Annual Meeting was held May 1–3, 2015, in beautiful Taos, NM. The meeting was hosted by the Taos Archaeological Soci-ety and Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project at the Sagebrush Inn & Suites. The theme of the meeting was Archaeology of the Rio Grande del Norte: A Collaboration, so the presenta-tions, on Saturday, focused on that area.

We heard a talk by Jeffrey Boyer about the practice of water management in the northern Rio Grande and whether or not there were pre-contact acequias in the Taos region. We learned from Merrill Dicks about nomads and farmers in what is now known as the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument. We heard a presentation by Steven Fowles on rock art and the identification of Ute, Comanche, and Jicarilla glyphs along with those by Kiowa, Navajo, Pawnee, Shoshone, and Cheyenne in the area. Theodore Frisbie presented an inter-esting theory that Mesoamericans built Chaco because it is surrounded by turquoise mining

April 1 Site Steward Lecture (cont).

Archaeological Society of New Mexico Annual Meeting

SITE LINES PAGE 9

after the Bandelier Speaker who was Skip Miller, forest archaeologist and tribal relations lead on the Carson National Forest. His pres-entation was titled, “Pottery and What it Tells Us about the Early Settlements of Taos: A Pot-ter’s Perspective.”

The attendees were given a wide choice of field trips for Sunday. They included: Middle Box full-day rafting and petroglyph hike; Orilla Verde rafting excursion float from the Taos Junction Bridge to Quartzite; La Vista Verde trail hike; Taos Junction Bridge archaeological site; Wells Petroglyph Preserve; BaahKu ar-chaeological site, and Pot Creek archaeological

site My friends and I enjoyed the entire weekend. In addition to the above, there was a silent auction, posters, vendors, and exhibitors. It was difficult to choose a field trip; there were two or three that sounded interesting. We chose the full-day rafting and petroglyph hike. The river was a bit low, so we started lower on the river than planned. We stopped for lunch at a petro-glyph site with glyphs on one large boulder and a few on smaller boulders around the area. We stopped at another site and saw one petroglyph. The float down the river was tons of fun.

— Ann White

and to settle in towns and cities. They were also the first people in the Americas to develop a so-phisticated style of stone sculpture. Each of the colossal heads is different; they are thought to be portraits of rulers. Like many unbelievable facts of the ancient world, basalt for these sculptures, which range from 6-40 tons, was not quarried lo-cally but transported 150 kilometers from moun-tains in Veracruz, probably by river.

At Comalcalco, which reached its peak during the Classic period around 500 CE, we had a chance to test our rain gear and learn about Ma-yan architecture. It is the only major Mayan city built with bricks rather than limestone masonry and was the westernmost city of the Mayan em-pire. A mystery is that the bricks, invisible after the walls were covered with stucco, were en-graved and decorated, often with what appears to be some kind of symbols. The ancient builders did not know the Roman arch. Their version was to build a corbelled arch, in which walls tiered to-ward one another; at the top, they could then be spanned by a large stone. This resulted in long narrow rooms with few or no windows.

Mayan history was recorded on a variety of plaster and stone surfaces throughout every city: on stelae (stone tablets), walls, lintels, and steps. Through study of the hieroglyphics, joined with carved and painted scenes, archaeologists have compiled an accurate account of royal succes-sion, as well as understanding of the culture and

From the lowlands to the highlands, the recent Archaeological Conservancy trip to Tabasco and Chiapas in Mexico to visit Olmec and Mayan ru-ins covered a lot of ground. The trip was struc-tured roughly chronologically as well as geo-graphically. We started at the Olmec site of La Venta, which was occupied from 900-400 BCE, then traveled to another early Mayan site, Co-malcalco. We then crossed into Chiapas and rode our big bus into the mountains to the great metropolis of Palenque. Bonompak, a day trip from Palenque, is noted mostly for the intact mu-rals. Deeper into the hinterlands is Yaxchilan, literally on the border with Guatemala, and we ended our tour high in the mountains at Tonina. Although I didn’t know it when I signed up, an-other SFNF site steward, John Pitts, and friend Siobhan Hancock, were on the trip, as well as a couple I had met previously through my volun-teer work at Chaco Canyon.

La Venta, on the Gulf of Mexico, best matched my personal interests because I had been longing to see the colossal heads, 17 of which have been found. The Olmec were the first inhabi-tants of the Americas to construct monu-mental architecture

ASNM Annual Meeting (cont).

Archaeological Conservancy Trip to Mexico

SITE LINES PAGE 10

compiled an accurate account of royal succes-sion, as well as understanding of the culture and lifestyle of each Mayan period.

Palenque (226 BCE to CE 799) is a large site that, these days, attracted a huge crowd of ven-dors and tourists. It contains some of the finest examples of Mayan architecture, sculpture, roof

combs [the structure that tops a pyramid], and bas-relief carvings. Visitors are no longer al-lowed into the Temple of the Inscriptions to see the tomb of Pacal the Great, but we saw an im-pressive replica in the museum.

Like all of the sites we visited, Bonampak (Late Classic period BC 580 to 800) is a well-maintained national park, with a good museum, clean restrooms (a key factor on this trip), and well-groomed lawns. Its importance lies not so much in monumental architecture as in its well-preserved murals. Three adjacent rooms with colorful murals (actually frescos) covering every inch of the walls and ceiling are open to the public. Guards outside each room strictly en-force the posted rules: no backpacks, no hats, no flash, no touching.

Yaxchilan was an adventure. Throughout the trip we had upscale accommodations at modern hotels, including some American chains. How-ever, the nearest accommodation to this site is Escudo Jaguar, a lodge a bit more suited to its frontier location. The ruin site is reached by an hour-long boat trip on the Usumacinta River, which forms the border with Guatemala. Deep in the jungle, the sound of howler monkeys and unseen birds accompanied us. From the safety of our boat, we saw an American crocodile basking on the riverbank. I had to check online, and yes, these are not alligators. This area is the heart of the American crocodile range.

Yaxchilan was a major power along the river in the Late Classic period (800-1000 CE) and particularly known for its stelae and well-preserved sculptured stone lintels set above doorways of main struc-tures, as well as the stair-way (right).

Finally, Tonina, reached by a winding road high in the mountains, had the nic-est ball court of any we vis-ited, one with some of the goals still visible. The site is distinguished by its well preserved stucco sculptures and par-ticularly by its in-the-round carved monu-ments, pro-duced to an extent not seen since the much ear-lier Olmec civilization. The city is notable for hav-ing the last known Long Count date on any Mayan monument, marking the end of the Classic Maya period in CE 909.

We were fortunate to have as a guide Dr. John Henderson, archaeologist, Mayan scholar, and author of World of the Ancient Maya. He can rattle off the succession of kings better than most of us can list United States presidents. In summary, I quote from the blurb on John’s book: “The ancient Maya were the only fully literate pre-Columbian people in the Americas. Superb scientists, they developed highly sophisticated mathematics and an intricate and accurate calendar system. Theirs was one of the few complex societies to emerge in and to adapt successfully to a tropical-forest envi-ronment. Their architecture, sculpture, and paint-ing were sophisticated and compellingly beautiful.”

— Judith Isaacs (text and photos)

Archaeological Conservancy Trip to Mexico (cont).

SITE LINES PAGE 11

Caja del Rio Area: In January, provisional stew-ards Eric Armijo and Steve Morse, along with Steve Lund, visited Tsinat and the rock art down-stream. This was the first site visit for Steve Morse, who transferred to the Caja group from Pecos.

In March, Steve Morse and Steve Lund made a visit to Los Aguajes via a new route that circum-

vented the closed FR 25 by going in from the BLM land.

In April, stewards Paula Lozar, Charles Koenig, and Stella Davidsen visited Los Aguajes. In May, Eric Armijo (sign duty), Steve Morse, and Steve Lund (photo duty) made an overdue visit to Pueblo del Norte and replaced the sign.

In addition, the Caja del Rio team welcomes Steve Morse as a certified site steward. Steve is also a SiteWatch volunteer, serving at Bandelier National Monument.

—Steve Lund

Rio Chama Area: The roster of stewards for the Rio Chama area has experienced several changes in recent months. Heidi Strickfaden and Shelly Wiemann (spring 2014 trainees) have now been fully certified as site stewards. We've added Chet White as a probationary steward upon the completion of his one-on-one training last month. And we're pleased to report that Jan Littleton has recovered from an injury so that she can rejoin her husband, Tom Littleton, as a site steward team. But at the same time that we've been able to move her to active status, we've had to put Arabelle and Grant Luckhardt on inactive status due to challenges to their lower limbs that prevent any significant walking.

With one important exception, our site visits this year have revealed no problems. The exception involves what is known as the Ku II site in the Rio del Oso area. As documented in the following photographs, this site has been the victim of re-curring acts of vandalism. Residents in the area appear to view this part of the SFNF as their per-sonal playground without restrictions. In addition

to off-road vehicle traffic, they have cut down several trees for bonfires. They have turned the

area into a shooting range with clay pigeons and empty, gallon-size milk cartons as their targets

On top of that, they feel no com-pulsion to retrieve and remove their empty cartridges. Finally (we hope), they view the area as their per-sonal dump site for various materi-als including even soiled diapers. Mike Bremer and Anne Baldwin are working with Law Enforce-ment Officers to determine the best approach for minimizing further disturbances. And the Rio Chama stewards will assist, both by more fre-quent site visits and any clean-up event.

—K. Paul Jones (text and photos)

Gallina Area: We welcome new steward, Law-rence Singer, and welcome back John and Diane Lenssen as well as Melodie Usher after a year off.

At left, Larry Singer.

Photo by Mike Grebinski

Mike Bremer will meet with the team on Saturday, May 30, for lunch at El Bruno’s in Cuba. We need to select a new ATL and AATL, as well as get together be-fore the field season begins in full swing.

— Jo Douglas

News from the Field

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Jemez Area: We welcome the new, per-manent Jemez District Archaeologist, Peter "Pete" Taylor. Pete was most recently on the Apache-Sitgreaves Forest in Arizona and had worked on the Coronado Forest also in Arizona. He has experience working with stewards in the Arizona Site Steward program and is looking forward to working with our program. Welcome, Pete.

—John Morris

Pecos Area: The Pecos did not see as much activity this winter due to the snow and rain but several folks were out on visits to both Glorieta Mesa and Anton Chico whenever possible. No disturbances were found on the sites themselves but there has been plenty of activity on the forest with wood cutting in all areas. Especially disturb-ing are the all too many slash circles of new tree limbs that are left after the main trunks have been cut away from both juniper and pine trees. Not a pretty sight. The roads, of course, continue to get deeply rutted and some areas have seen severe washouts.

The team got together for a brown bag lunch and tour of the Pecos National His-torical Park on April 21st. We were given a private tour by Jeremy Moss, who is the Cultural Resource Manager for the park. He started with a tour of the main loop of the Pecos Ruins and Mission Church, and gave a great orientation to Pecos history. He fol-lowed that with a walk into the backcountry to Forked Lightning Pueblo where archae-ologist Alfred Kidder worked and where his grave is located and an old car is still stand-ing (or rather, rusting into the ground). While the pueblo, which was made of adobe, is barely visible any longer, the rel-ics from the excavation and the abundance

of pottery sherds were most interesting to everyone. This outing was a real treat since these ruins are not open to the public. After the tour, most team members stayed on at the picnic area for lunch. Everyone agreed that Jeremy’s knowledge of the Pecos was excel-lent and his delivery was very engaging and interesting. In addition to getting to meet each other, we were very fortunate to have AnnMarie Kmetz and Gilbert Burkman from the SFNF Pecos Office join us for the tour and lunch. Most of the stewards have little connec-tion or interaction with the forest archaeolo-gists so this was an excellent venue for every-

one to get acquainted. All in all, it was a good day for the team.

Left to right: Rhonda Brewer, Pecos NHP; Gordon Groff; Gilbert Burkman, SFNF Pecos Ofc; Ross Pope; Phil Young; Ray Willison; Felicia Probert; Sharon Paris; Paul Leo; Lois Haggard; AnnMarie Kmetz, SFNF Pecos Ofc; Corinne Willi-son; Jeremy Moss, Pecos NHP; Joslyn Werner; Jon Green-ing. Photo by Cathy Gates

The team lost two stewards this season: El-eanor Gossen and Gary Gossen. Eleanor and Gary have been site stewards since 2006, and Eleanor served on the council for two years as secretary (2011 and 2012). We are most appreciative of their time and contribu-tions to the program, and to the Pecos area, and we shall miss having them as members of the team. — Cathy Gates

News from the Field (cont).

This year the annual Pecos Conference will be held at the Lost Canyon Ranch, nine miles north of Mancos, Colorado, and sponsored by the An-thropology Department of Fort Lewis College. The web site is http://pecosconference.com, which provides all the details. This is an informal event, which this year features speakers, the Cordell Prize, and, on Sat-urday night, Bubba’s BBQ, and a barn dance. It’s always an interesting and enjoyable weekend with archaeologists currently working in the Southwest.

Pecos Conference, August 6-9

Your business tag line here.

Site Lines

Is published quarterly by the Santa Fe National Forest Site Steward

Program

Co-editors Irene Wanner

570 Vista Hermosa Jemez Pueblo, NM

87024 iwanner@uw.edu (575/829-3357)

Nancy Cella

84 Ponderosa Place Jemez Springs, NM

87025 nancycella@spinn.net

(575/829-4634)

We’re on the Web

www://sfnfsitestewards.org

Save the Dates July 25 Quarterly Council Meeting, Conference Room, Santa Fe National Forest Office, Santa Fe, 9 a.m. August 6-9 Pecos Conference, Mancos, Colorado Sept. 19 Chili Cookoff/Annual Meeting, Fuller Lodge, Los Alamos

Interesting Reading:

Here are some new and recent items you might enjoy:

Archaeology May/June 2015 – Includes an article about the Penitentes in northern New Mexico.

The Lost World of the Old Ones by David Roberts – ruins and rock art of the Four Corners region.

Hoe, Heaven, & Hell – My Boyhood in Rural New Mexico by Nasario Garcia – a charming memoir of the author’s 1930s and ’40s childhood in the Rio Puerco valley.

Rock with Wings by Anne Hillerman – in this second who-dunit by journalist/novelist daughter of Tony Hillerman, Bernadette Manuelito, Jim Chee, and Joe Leaphorn un-ravel mysteries near Shiprock and in Monument Valley.

Can you identify this shrub? It is on mostly south-facing, dry slopes, often sheltered by a larger shrub or tree in southeast Utah.